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A consultation paper issued by the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council invites suggestions before the end of January for an "equitable" and "transparent" research funding method.

The paper says the present system treats Northern Ireland universities as if they are constituent parts of the English sector, which has a large number of diverse institutions. Yet both Queen's and the University of Ulster have "a relatively more significant role" in research activity than many English universities. It suggests Northern Ireland weightings should therefore be added to the current method to "encourage and reward success in increasing the quality of research".